The dd part is optional, and the command only needs to be run for security reasons (i.e only if you had top secret files on your drive). The command overwrites the lingering data on the device with random data. It takes around 6 hours to complete for a 200GB drive.

Note that you will get a message about reaching the end of the device when the dd command has finished. This behavior is intended.

>>> better-initramfs started. Kernel version 2.6.35-gentoo-r10
>>> Create all the symlinks to /bin/busybox.
>>> Initiating /dev/dir
>>> Getting LVM volumes up (if any)
Reding all physical volumes. This make take awhile...
No volume group found
No volume group found
>>> Opening encrypted partition and mapping to /dev/mapper/dmcrypt_root
Enter passphrase fore /dev/sda2: